Quiet of the Woods (Open RP)

Re: Quiet of the Woods (Open RP)

Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2013 12:55 am

by Pierre Monteux

Pierre took his knife and quickly cut the throat of the sow, and set it on a log so that it would bleed out while he set up the fire.

It took a few minutes, but with a little bit of work he cleared an area large enough for a fire without burning down the whole forest. He gathered up the small bits of fuel he moved and put it into the center of the circle. The tree nearby had a few dead branches on it that looked like they'd be good kindling. After breaking them into small pieces, he had plenty of fuel to get a fire started. All he needed now were some larger pieces of wood to keep it going.

A short walk away he found a tree that was dead. It wasn't too tall, and would make a decent fuel source. He pulled his hatchet out of his pack, and pulled the cover off of the blade. After taking a couple practice swings, he found the mark where he wanted to strike on the tree. Pierre drew a rune on the tree at that point, and then swung with the hatchet. The single swing, went completely through the tree, and it fell over.

After repeating drawing the rune and swinging, he had a decent amount of wood, which he carried back to where he had built up the kindling already. He pulled out a piece of flint he had found from his pack, and proceeded to scrape the back of his hatchet across it. After a few swipes, a leaf caught fire, near the wood. With a bit of care, the kindling was burning, and Pierre was adding the larger logs to the fire.

He turned his attention back to the Sow. After a few minutes of work, he had gutted it, cleaned it, and had passed a stick through it. By now the fire was a bit less in size, but still significant in terms of coals. Adding a single log to the fire, He quickly located two sticks to hold up the sow on the makeshift spit, and slowly turned it over the fire.

"Cooking it like this will take a while, but it will be faster in the long run, and should allow for less waste of the meat."

He closed his eyes as his thoughts drifted back to the first time he'd cooked like this.

Re: Quiet of the Woods (Open RP)

Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2013 1:07 am

by Songhue

For some reason, she found the whole ordeal amusing. After tossing back her last hunk of meat, she cleaned her face once again and walked over to where the pig (minus a leg) rotated over the flames.

It left her with a choice; she could get the fire to wrap around the pig and quick-bake the meat. Or she could resist showing off and take the time to talk.

It wasn't as easy a choice as she'd supposed. While slightly disinclined to talk, she was also curious - and didn't want to be alone.

Well, she finally said, if that's how you want to cook it. Do you always cook like this? Is it how you tell your cubs to do it?

Re: Quiet of the Woods (Open RP)

Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2013 1:19 am

by Pierre Monteux

Pierre gave a soft chuckle. "The way I cook depends greatly on what I have with me. If I were home, the pig would be in a large pan inside a brick oven built to contain the fire. Another way I've done it is to take a metal grate, and cut the meat into slices. It cooks much faster for each slice. While I could put the pig into the fire here, the outside would burn before the inside cooked. I probably would be eating sooner, but a good portion of the meat would be wasted. This way, the whole animal will cook with minimal burning. If I cut the remaining meat into strips, salt it, and put it back over the fire even further away, it will dry and last several days. Each day I can make this stretch is another day that I don't need to hunt.

While that may not be a problem here, where I'm from, there are times when hunting and cooking in the open like this is impossible. Reavers have learned that a campfire means people. They normally live underground, but if they are about, the last thing you want to do is draw attention to yourself. A campfire with cooking food is almost as bad as shouting 'here I am'. Also, in less civilized parts of the world, bandits look at campfires for people to prey on. Though this world is a peaceful one, it's hard to not keep these protections for myself."

Re: Quiet of the Woods (Open RP)

Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2013 1:37 am

by Songhue

She blinked, pleased to have had him explain so much, but surprised at his hesitancy to hunt.

If you dont want to hunt, you don't have to, she said with a grin, ignoring the fact that she could wrap the fire inside and cook it all at once for the sake of the discussion. Here, certain nuts, berries, fruit and eggs are available at any time. Nuts and eggs don't appeal to me much like this, but it could work. And the hunting isn't that great, anyway, nothing larger than this pig to be eaten. A lot of times you can simply look around and find a snack.

Stretching, she flopped next to him and tilted her head back, staring up through the leaves. Back home, we had special areas to hunt in. We had to pay attention, to make sure we weren't so blind as to hurt one another. When I came here, i didn't have anywhere to hunt any more. I didn't even know for sure what happened or what I was.

She trailed off for a moment, thinking of her own journey much like the one Pierre would soon be fumbling on. Quietly, she said It's good to hunt again.

Then she yawned and gave him that feline grin. She could smell the meat cooking, by now.

If you don't hunt in the open because of the insane-creatures, how do you feed your cubs?

Re: Quiet of the Woods (Open RP)

Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2013 1:54 am

by Pierre Monteux

Pierre laughed a bit. "I have nothing against hunting itself. I dislike waste.

To answer your statement though about how it is where I'm from, there are differences from being out in the wild like this, and how everyday life is. I spent most of my time in a village, one that was far enough to be safe from the Reavers. We raised cattle, pigs, sheep, and various birds. We had several crops that we'd plant every year. We tended the berries and the fruit trees. When the season came for mushrooms, we'd head into the forest and harvest them.

The need for caution was if we headed southwest, towards danger. Though in the weeks before I came here, danger was headed towards us. The whole village could be gone by now."

He stabbed the pig with the knife, to see if the juices ran clear. A bit of blood was visible. He swung the knife to get the blood off of it, and then held it in the fire for a few seconds, before stabbing one of the legs. There the juices ran clear, so he cut off the leg. He started eating it, while turning the spit with his other hand.

Re: Quiet of the Woods (Open RP)

Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2013 2:05 am

by Songhue

Why not just leave? she frowned. If dangerous predators came, find a new territory. Plants grow lots of places. Pigs can walk.

Shaking her head, she thought that some foreign ways might never be understood. Nature doesn't allow waste, either. What we leave, others use. Rodents, insects, even trees. Although it is wise to use all you can; you might starve, leaving your own meat to rodents.